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Councils have accused EnergyAustralia of "repackaging" an
application for a 70 per cent increase in street lighting charges
which the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART)
rejected in March.

The power company has applied for a 27.3 per cent increase in
charges to councils over the next three years and foreshadowed
applications for further increases within that period. The
increases could cost individual councils up to $1million a
year.

A submission from the 29 Sydney, Central Coast and Hunter Valley
councils that form the Street Lighting Improvement Program lobby
group said that the first stage of EnergyAustralia's proposed
increases would overcharge them by at least $25 million over the
next four years and $80 million over the next decade.

They claimed the proposed charges were based on "highly
inefficient and obsolete practices". According to their submission,
EnergyAustralia was still installing lights last year that other
utilities discontinued in the 1980s and its labour productivity was
less than half that of Victoria's utilities. A recent pricing
decision and analysis by the Victorian regulator suggested that the
proposed pricing was 60 to 168 per cent too high.

"The pricing is significantly at odds with recently approved
prices in Victoria, including charges for some common light types
that are more than double those approved by the Victorian Essential
Services Commission," the councils said in their suubmission.
"EnergyAustralia's proposed charges are also inconsistent with the
National Electricity Code and with its own detailed analysis of
costs."

The president of the Local Government Association, Genia
McCaffery, said the new application was a repackaged version of
EnergyAustralia's previous proposal and should again be rejected by
IPART in its entirety. "There is an embarrassing litany of obsolete
practices and poor performance here that councils and ratepayers
should not be required to pay for. It would be a dreadful precedent
for all councils in NSW and, indeed, for all classes of electricity
customers to condone and perpetuate such inefficiency."

The Mayor of Hurstville, Joanne Morris, on behalf of the
Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, said councils
were subject to rate pegging and would have to substantially cut
other community services to pay for the increases. "That councils
and ratepayers should pay for this appalling legacy of obsolete
equipment, inefficient practices and mismanagement is simply not
on," she said.

Bankstown City Council said it would be forced to halt its
program of upgrading street lights. "Street lighting is a big
greenhouse issue for councils and widely recognised as a useful
tool in reducing both crime and the fear of crime," said the Mayor
of Bankstown, Helen Westwood. "It will be of real concern to
residents and the police if councils have to drastically curtail
future lighting improvements."

Local government has called on the Energy Minister, Frank
Sartor, to break EnergyAustralia's effective monopoly on street
lighting. While councils are free to buy the power for street
lights from whomever they like, the street lights themselves are
owned by EnergyAustralia, which is the only body authorised to
repair them.

EnergyAustralia said councils did not pay the full cost of the
street lights and that, under new regulatory arrangements allowed
by IPART, they should pay the full cost.